Review: Batman Volume 7: The Wedding

A weekend review of a light-hearted reading, because sometimes Pastors needs a break from heavy theological reading.

Tom King.  Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 7: The Wedding. Burbank, CA: DC Comics, October 30th 2018. 176 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This is volume seven of Batman in DC’s Rebirth era.  The volume collects Batman issues # 45-50.

The first story is the longer story of those in the volume and is titled the Gift.   It takes place in some kind of alternative universe in which Bruce Wayne is not Batman, his parents are alive and Dick Grayson is the Batman instead.  Other Batman character are also living different kinds of lives away from being superheros such as Todd, Duke and Catwoman.  The story center on a character whose name is Booster Gold .  As told in the finale Booster Gold is really a guy name Michael Jon Carter a former football star at Gotham University with a tragic backstory that ended his football career which led him to become a hero.  He is from the future but goes back into time to try to give Bruce Wayne a “gift” that will fix things back to the way we know it.  It is an interesting story though readers can be easily thrown off if one wasn’t paying careful attention to the storyline.  I did a look more research into Booster Gold and found out his backstory also included him having a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring and Brainiac 5’s force field belt that he acquired from a museum display. It is kind of neat to see DC tying the Legion of Super-Heroes into the newer comic books.

The second story is titled “Your Big Day.”  It was a little too dark with me with the Joker sadistic side being directed towards a random stranger all because the Joker wanted to be invited to Batman’s wedding.

The third story is titled “The Best Man.”  It is a story of Joker being demented and dialoguing with Batman and Catwoman about the wedding through a forced hostage situation which is his means of getting their attention.  Like the second story this one was a little too weird for me.

Then there is the wedding.  It is a well done artistic story telling.  As the story is told from the perspective of Batman and Catwoman there is a review of past DC Comics artwork featuring the Bat and the Cat throughout DC history.  I thought it was neat seeing how comic art changes throughout the decades and how Batman and Catwoman is rendered by different artists.  I wanted to read this volume for the wedding portion of the book and I enjoyed it though I must say it is brief compared to the adventures that came before the wedding in this volume and the previous volume.  Yet it ends in a way where you see the possibility of a new adventure that would follow in future issues which builds anticipation.

NOTE: This book was provided to me free by DC Comics and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.